Kebebasan Untuk Milah

Hello to the world!!

How was the week?? Did everyone smile and sing and laugh and just love life? I hope so! I also hope everyone had a chance to help someone else this week!

For us the week was pretty biasa (or as we say in America - normal). But also great as always!! The beginning of the week is honestly just a blur. I pretty much can't remember it haha. Time has been weird lately - my time in Malang seems like it was merely days ago, but the beginning of this week feels like it was years ago.

Well one really notable thing is that we had the chance to split on Friday. We brought up Elder Fowler and Elder Widigdo from Bekasi. I got to go on Splits with Elder Fowler (my good friend who was my District Leader back in Malang). It was AWESOME. Tons of fun! We had some great experiences together with a healthy dose of miracles. Two guys we found out in the kampung (or like the more neigborhoody part) were really awesome. One of them, who seemed like he was about to violently reject our entire message, took the Kitab Mormon and said "I'm so excited to read this, it will help me re-strengthen my faith in Jesus Christ" And I was like "Yeah it will!!" Two great lessons about how to not judge others and to never underestimate the power of truth from God!

I learned so much from Elder Fowler, even though he is nearing the end of his mission, he is still working so hard and is such a wonderful example of pure love for those he serves. He also said the split helped him as well, which boosted my confidence and made me feel great!

Our investigators are doing well, but some have been difficult to meet with. Pak F came to church and i think he really enjoyed it. It was really cool - he and  Brother B (who was baptized recently) had a cool talk where they basically testified to each other about the truth that is found in the restored church of Jesus Christ. So that was great.

We got a new Uskup (Bishop today) - Uskup Daniel. He is awesome and we are excited about that! We also got to attend the baptism of an 8 year old in the English Ward. Good Sunday!

SO yeah we are working hard, because we know that there truly are people here that God is preparing to receive the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our new Bishop was supposed to teach in Gospel Principles class (which is the Sunday School class that is mostly intended for people invsestigating the church and for new members) but obviously he was otherwise occupied. So he asked me to teach for him. I had the opportunity to teach about "Kebebasan Untuk Milih" or "The Freedom to Choose". That was really fun because I love that subject. I don't know if anyone else learned, but I certainly did, about Free Agency and how we are all free to choose what we will do and as consequence where we will go and who we will become. It is really incredible, after all is said and done, it is truly up to us. 

And because of Jesus Christ, we truly can choose. Because of his redeeming power, if we want to repent, if we want to become better, we CAN. As we trust in and believe in Jesus Christ, we are given the power to choose our destiny, in a very literal sense. Every choice will bring us closer to Christ or further away from him. As we yield to te enticings of the Holy Spirit (as we learn in Mosiah 3:19) and make the right choices, we can become who God desires us to be. I'm sorry, i don't mean to preach, but it is such a sign of God's love for us that He allows us to choose. I know that Jesus truly suffered for our sins so that we can repent. I testify that each of us CAN choose what is right and we can become who we desire to be, and if we desire, we can become who God wants us to be.

So let's all make good choices :)

Everyone have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Brown